Koala Bears

Koala Bears are not bears because they don’t have the koalaifications. They eat nothing but leaves, and only the leaves of a few species of eucalyptus trees. The primary ingredient of eucalyptus leaves is a bitter oil, the bears like it as much as we like ice-cream and eat over a kilogram a day.

When I was young eucalyptus oil was rubbed on our chest when we had a cold or flu. The oil would fill the air with its pungent odor and help clear your nose. A tiny bit of eucalyptus oil is now mixed with sugar and other flavors to become the basis for most cough and throat tablets. It is no wonder therefore that koala bears smell like cough drops. This has a very beneficial result. There isn’t an insect known that will bother the koala. Fleas, mosquitoes, and ticks ignore it, so it just lives peacefully in the eucalyptus trees munching on medicine.

Eucalyptus leaves have many ingredients besides oil, however. Different species have different chemicals that have interesting effects on the koalas that prefer them. In the warm climate of northern Australia, koalas eat only leaves that contain cineole, a substance the works in the body to lower blood pressure and body heat. In the south, where the climate is cooler, the animals eat leaves containing phellandrene, which increases body temperature.

For the koala, the eucalyptus is, in a sense, the tree of life, though of course it does not keep the koala alive forever. However, In Genesis 3:22 we learn that man can live forever by eating the tree of life. In Revelation 2:7 Jesus promises that we will eat again from this tree. There is a description of that tree, that will be in the new earth in Revelation 22:2. A river flows right through the middle of it, and bears a different fruit every month. I can’t wait to see it!